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| dolittle |
| Hi. hoping that someone can help me with my problem house training Dolly our dobie pup. She is 14 weeks old and a new addition to our household. The problem is she keeps urinating on her bed. She is taking out to the garden on a regular basis has her number 2 then comes in and either goes on the newspaper or in her bed. All the bedding is washed to remove any odour but she still does it. We are still waiting for her 2nd jab before we can take her out and hope this helps things. By the way she has only been with us for 4 days so maybe this is the problem. Any help greatly appreciated. |
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| Froggy |
I think there are couple of things that it could be down to. As you say she hasnt been with you for long so it could just be a matter of she isnt quite sure of the rules yet. I was wondering though, is she consciouly goint to the paper or her bedding, squatting and urinating? Or is this something she is doing while she sleeping or relaxing. The reason I ask is some puppies take a while before all their muscles are working correctly, also if she was spayed before you got her that can have an effect on the muscles controlling the bladder (in the US a lot of pups are spayed very early due to over population, its more common in shelters and sometimes breeders will do this when they dont want a particular dog they are selling to be bred). Another thing to rule out would be a bladder infection in which case she wont be able to stop herself.
If its just down to house-training heres what I do, first of all keep in mind that puppies are like a 'conveyer belt' whatever goes in one end goes for a quick journey around the stomach, through the intestines or bladder and comes out the other end in a very short period of time. After eating, playing or sleeping is when pups will need to pee, at 14 weeks she should be able to hold it for about 6 hours at night.
So, have some small tasty treats, not hard biscuits (I use chicken or beef mostly, very small pieces, no bigger than your fingernail on your little finger) when you take her outside use a command to tell her to pee/poop like "go potty" keep saying it until she goes, as shes peeing say "good potty" (or whatever word your using), keep your tone on a normal level, no excitement, frustration etc, as shes finishing, preferable before shes standing all the way up keep praising her and give her one piece of food. If you catch her going in the house or acting like she want to pee just tell her 'sternly' "No" then take her out immediately, she will probably sniff around for a few minutes first (she'd have forgotten what she came out for initially) but be patient and give her the command word. Ive had dogs in training that have taken 20 minutes before they 'remembered' what they came out for.
Dobermans can be a little skittish, over-sensitive or high-strung so if they know your angry at them....i.e. you catch puppy peeing inside and yell at them or even in a 'panicky' tone "no....not again" (not saying youve done this) it will freak them out a bit, you need to be clear and calm in your handling of the siutation.
One other thing, does she sleep in a crate or confined area? Most dogs wont use their sleeping area as a bathroom. With crated dogs make sure that she doesnt have enough room to pee at one end and sleep at the other end, blankets provide somewhere the pee can be soaked up in and pushed to one side.
Hope this helps a bit. |
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| dolittle |
| Thanks for replying Froggy. We have noticed she is actually squatting and making an efffort to urinate on her bed,and today on the other dogs bed... territory marking perhaps??? but would this be usual for a pup of this age.???? we will definately try the things you mention, i will let you know how we get on.Once again thanks for the tips .:) |
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| Froggy |
14 weeks is a little young to be marking territory although its not unheard of with another dog present. How old is the other dog? male or female?
The fact that she is deliberately doing it is actually a good thing in as much as it would rule out any incontinance and probably possible bladder infections and it means that it is workable.
Hope your having some progress. |
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